


A Fistful of Lingonberries

by Kiraly



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Backstory, Family, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-30
Updated: 2016-10-30
Packaged: 2018-08-23 17:21:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8336200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiraly/pseuds/Kiraly
Summary: In Year 80 Keuruu, Tuuri has a hard time fitting in. When a misconception turns her peers against her and lands her in trouble, it's up to her family to help her get through it - and get even.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [StarSpray](https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarSpray/gifts).



> Hello there Trick or Treat recip! I hope you enjoy this taste of Hotakainen backstory. The story jumps around a bit, so hopefully the dates and times will help clear things up if there's any confusion.
> 
> I owe Minutia-r so many thanks for this fic - for the idea bouncing session that sparked this story, for beta-reading, and for general enthusiasm throughout the whole process. And many thanks to Laufey for advising me on Finnish berry varietals, Kalevala lore, and whether or not scones are a thing in Finland.

_ Year 80, Day 345 - Early Evening _

“So how was school today?” The question came in between bites of rye bread—these days, Onni only seemed to have time for Tuuri during meals. She understood why, of course. His mage duties kept him busy, and now that Lalli was old enough to train as a mage, Onni had to spend all his spare time teaching. Tuuri knew all of that. She was getting better at pretending to be happy about it, too. 

“School was fine,” she muttered. “Just fine.”

Apparently not good enough, though.

“Are you sure?” Onni was looking at her now, bread forgotten. “You aren’t having trouble with the work? And the other kids—”

“The other kids are  _ fine,  _ Onni! It’s all fine.” Tuuri took a deep breath and set her spoon on the table, careful not to slam it down. “The work is easy. I’m okay. You don’t have to worry about me.”

Onni’s frown stayed in place. That was all-too-common these days, too. “You would tell me if something was wrong, wouldn’t you?”

“Of course.” 

But she wouldn’t. She hadn’t told him about all the other times, either, even though she wanted to. He couldn’t do anything to fix it.  _ I have to do this myself. And I will. Tomorrow.  _

* * *

Onni watched her go and sighed into his soup. “She was too quiet. I wonder if something happened?”

There was no answer. Onni had the table to himself though, so he hadn’t really expected one. He reached for the last bite of his bread—and came away empty-handed, because it was gone. “Hmph.” He leaned sideways until he could see under the table. “Enjoying that?

Lalli chewed, eyes locked on the chunk of bread. Onni waited, and eventually his cousin rewarded him with the tiniest hint of a nod.

“Okay. And do you happen to know what’s going on with Tuuri? Did she tell you anything?”

Another pause, then a head-shake. Well. At least  _ one  _ of his family members gave clear answers. Even if the cousin in question never actually said anything out loud.

“All right, then.” Onni pushed the bench back from the table and got to his feet. “Are you ready to go? It’s time for your lesson.”

_ One family challenge at a time. Whatever Tuuri’s dealing with, it will have to wait.  _

* * *

_ Year 80, Day 343 - Late Morning _

“You’ll never guess what I just saw!”

The group of girls looked up from their game as Kaisa arrived, out of breath and with her hair flying behind her. She ran everywhere she went, which was probably why she always found out the latest gossip before anyone else.

“What is it?” someone asked.

“Anssi and Eeva were  _ kissing  _ behind the school!”

Everyone started talking at once. Some of the girls giggled behind their hands, while others speculated about how long the two had been dating. 

“Eeva better not kiss him  _ too  _ much. Otherwise she could end up with a baby!” This statement made most of the group fall over laughing. But Tuuri, sitting a little apart from the rest as usual, rolled her eyes.

“Stupid. That’s not how you get a baby.”

They all turned to look at her. “Oh yeah? And what do  _ you  _ know about it?” Kaisa said. She didn’t take kindly to being corrected.

Then again, neither did Tuuri. She closed her book with a snap and lifted her chin. “More than  _ you.  _ You don’t have babies by kissing people.”

“Then how does it happen?” Kaisa smirked.

Tuuri turned her book so the other girls could see the cover. “It’s all in here. You have to eat a lingonberry, obviously. Haven’t you read your Kalevala?”

* * *

_ Year 80, Day 345 - Evening _

Tuuri let herself into the house and sank back against the door. She left the lights off for a moment, allowing her eyes to adjust to the darkness.  _ I wonder if it’s this dark out in the forest right now. Hopefully Lalli and Onni can see enough to find their way home.  _

She wouldn’t know until morning anyway; by the time they finished Lalli’s training, she’d be asleep. Then it would be school for her and Lalli, mage duty for Onni. For now though, she had the house to herself. Normally, she hated that; it was hard to fall asleep when no one else was home, not knowing if they’d make it back. But tonight, she was glad for the privacy.

She unbuttoned her jacket and hung it from the peg by the door.  _ Lucky for me it got chilly tonight, or Onni would have wanted to know why I kept it on during dinner.  _ She’d been prepared with a story about catching a cold; she hated to lie to him, but it was simpler. She could explain a coat far more easily than the ugly red blotches all over her shirt. 

In the dim light by the sink, she inspected the stains with a sigh. They  _ might  _ come out. She’d have to scrub for ages though, and she hated doing laundry. Easier to dye the shirt a darker color, but they didn’t have the money for that. No money for a new one, either, so she’d have to do the best she could. Tuuri shook her head and went to change. She’d get her revenge. After all, there was more than one way to eat a lingonberry.

* * *

_ Year 80, Day 345 - Afternoon _

It was the best story she’d ever read. It had adventure, action, friendship, and a  _ little  _ bit of kissing, which she was starting to think wasn’t so bad. Best of all, there weren’t any mages, so she was free to imagine herself as whichever character she wanted. She was so wrapped up in reading that she didn’t hear the others until they had her surrounded.

“Oh look, if it isn’t little miss know-it-all. Better be careful, if you don’t get your nose out of that book, it’ll get stuck that way.”

Tuuri looked up amid the chorus of laughter. “What do you want, Kaisa?”

The other girl had her hands behind her back and a smile on her face. “Oh, nothing much. I just had some food and I thought I’d ask if you were hungry. You  _ look  _ hungry.”

More giggling.  _ Great,  _ Tuuri thought,  _ it’s going to be another fat joke. Nevermind that my brother is just as stocky, and he’s solid muscle.  _ “No, thanks.”

“Aww, but I got these specially for you! Won’t you at least eat  _ one?” _ Kaisa held her hands in front of Tuuri’s face to show a gleaming pile of lingonberries. “I heard one is all it takes.”

“Eww, no!” Tuuri jerked back. The other girls laughed harder. “I don’t want it, go away!”

Hands gripped her arms from behind. Kaisa was still smiling, looking like the cat who killed the troll. “Well, if you aren’t going to eat them, I guess we’ll have to put them somewhere else!”

The little fruits had thick skins; Kaisa really had to push to get them to spill their red juice. By the time they let her go, Tuuri was sore from shoving and hoarse from shouting. 

“Such bad language! You’d better not let your parents hear—oh, wait, I forgot. You don’t  _ have  _ any.”

The burning rage in Tuuri’s veins turned cold. She drew a breath. Held it. Let it out, clenched her fist.

Someone—all the faces blurred behind unshed tears—drew Kaisa back. “Aww, come on, that’s too mean. Let’s go, she’s had enough.” They filtered away, leaving Tuuri there with a ruined shirt, tattered pride, and a single thought:  _ She’s going to pay for this. _

* * *

 

_ Year 80, day 346 - Noon _

On their way out of school the next day, Tuuri caught Lalli by the arm before he could make his escape. “Hey! Walk home with me, okay?”

Lalli froze and stared at her. Tuuri stared back, then released her hold. “Oh, right. Sorry,” she said. “Will you walk with me, though? I wanted to tell you a big secret.”

Lalli didn’t want to know Tuuri’s secrets. He knew plenty of secrets already. And the best way to keep things secret was to tell no one, not even family. That was why Lalli never said anything.

And anyway, if she  _ was  _ going to tell a secret, she shouldn’t do it like this. Not in the busy schoolyard, with its too-many people and too-much noise. There were people close enough to hear Tuuri’s too-loud words. Like those girls, the ones Tuuri pretended she didn’t hate. The ones she’d gotten in trouble for fighting when they first came, when one of them said something about Lalli. He hadn’t understood it—probably one of those weird jokes. But Tuuri hadn’t liked it, and she’d fought. Made Onni cry, too, when he found out.

So he didn’t want to hear the secret. Didn’t want Tuuri to say it out loud at all. But  _ she  _ wanted to, and she  _ had  _ fought for him. So he kept to her slow pace and listened while she chattered nonsense.

“It’s so neat that you get to go  _ outside  _ the civilian wall at night, Lalli. I heard you mages get up to all kinds of stuff, isn’t that right? Secret magic, the kind us non-mages aren’t allowed to see.”

That was stupid. Of course he did magic, that was what he was  _ supposed  _ to be doing. Just because Tuuri  _ couldn’t  _ see it, didn’t mean she wasn’t  _ allowed  _ to.

“I bet if someone went out past the wall after bedtime, they’d see everything. Wouldn’t that be a story to tell later? Imagine being the only non-mage to know all the mages’ secrets!”

But they couldn’t. This had to be a weird joke. The stupid girls thought so too, they were whispering.

“And I  _ also  _ heard that when the wall guards change, sometimes people can slip past them. They’d have to be small and fast, but it would be possible. But probably nobody is brave enough to do that.  _ I  _ would, but I always go right to sleep.”

At least that last part was true. Tuuri was always snoring by the time he got home and crawled under her bed. 

“But you know what...maybe I will go! Tonight. I’ll be the first non-mage to see what you mages get up to.”

She said that last part too loud. Lalli shook his head. This was a bad secret. No, a bad  _ idea.  _ Tuuri didn’t belong outside the wall after dark. She shouldn’t be saying so where people could hear. He walked faster, pulling Tuuri past the girls and through the crowd. The sooner they got home, the sooner this weird conversation would be over.

* * *

_ Year 80, Day 346 - Night _

Tuuri huddled in a pool of shadow and waited. She’d been waiting all day—first to lay out the bait for Kaisa, then for Onni and Lalli to leave on their mage business. Now she waited to see if her plan was going to work.

_ It has to work! Kaisa thinks so much of herself, she’s sure to come.  _ She repeated the words over and over in her head, hoping to convince herself they were true. As the hours passed and nothing happened, it got harder to believe. She could see the guards from her hiding place. They stamped their feet and shifted, clearly as bored as she was.  _ Maybe she isn’t coming. Or maybe she already did. Maybe she got past the guards.  _

Tuuri hadn’t considered that possibility. But once it occurred to her, she couldn’t think of anything else.  _ What if Kaisa went outside and they locked the door behind her? She’d be stuck! And it’s supposed to be safe out there, since there’s still the outer wall, but...what if it isn’t? What if something gets through and hurts her? _

The more she thought about it, the more Tuuri’s worry grew. Just as she was starting to think she should tell someone what she’d done—or run home and hide under her blankets, pretend it was a bad dream—a commotion broke out farther along the wall. She heard the sound of raised voices, and one of them sounded very familiar. A wave of relief washed over her; Kaisa hadn’t gotten outside after all. Then a surge of triumph.  _ Ha! I got her!  _ Before she had time to gloat, someone grabbed her by the collar and yanked her to her feet.

* * *

_ Year 80, Day 346 - Evening _

“That was a good try, Lalli. But I keep telling you, it’s not going to work if you don’t say the words  _ out loud.  _ I know you don’t like to talk, and that’s  _ fine  _ for most things, but not for magic. You want the gods to hear you, don’t you?”

Lalli scowled at the ground. Onni sighed.

“You’re as stubborn as Tuuri sometimes, you know that?”

He’d expected his cousin to give some sign of annoyance at the comparison—he was the most stubborn of them all, and proud of it—but instead Lalli shot him a glance that was almost guilty before looking away again.

“Lalli? Is there something I should know?”

Lalli shook his head hard, squeezing his eyes shut.

“Lalli.”

No answer.

“Lalli, please.”

After a pause that stretched Onni’s nerves to the breaking point, Lalli gave a tiny nod.

“Is it—”

_ “Tuuri.”  _

The word escaped on a breath so soft Onni almost missed it. 

“Did you say...Tuuri? Is she in trouble?”

Another tiny nod.

“We’re going back. Right now.” Onni made to wrap an arm around Lalli but stopped just short as his cousin flinched away. He laid a hand on his shoulder instead. “Come on. We’re going to help Tuuri, and everything will be all right.” 

* * *

_ Year 80, Day 346 - Night _

“Eeek!” Tuuri couldn’t help the shriek that escaped her. She spun around, trying to twist herself free of whoever was holding her—and found herself face-to-face with her brother.

“What are you  _ doing  _ out here?” Onni demanded, fury infusing his voice. “I checked the house and you weren’t in your bed! I thought something had happened to you! If Lalli hadn’t led me out here…”

“I wasn’t...I didn’t…” Tuuri fumbled for an explanation, but all that came out was a strangled sob. Worse, the voices by the gate were coming toward them, probably alerted by her scream.  _ Everything is ruined, and it’s all my fault. Now I’m going to get in trouble and Onni will probably get in trouble too, and—  _

“What’s going on over there?”

She couldn’t look at the guard. Couldn’t look at Onni either, not when she knew how disappointed he would be. So she was surprised when he wrapped an arm around her and said, “Nothing.”

_ What?  _

“Doesn’t look like ‘nothing’ to me,” the guard said. “What are these kids doing out so late? There’s a curfew, you know. Does this have anything to do with the other one? Some little girl got caught sneaking out of her house and claimed a friend put her up to it. Wouldn’t go back to bed until her father brought her to the gate to prove there was no one else there.”

Tuuri swallowed hard.  _ This is it. Now Onni will know what I’ve done, and he’ll tell them, and they’ll probably make me stay in the house for the rest of my life.  _

But Onni didn’t do that. “Kids sneaking out? Hmph. Don’t know what that has to do with us. Lalli and I just got back from his training like we always do.”

“And the girl?”

Tuuri risked a glance at Onni, who caught her looking and squeezed her shoulder. The bored expression on his face didn’t change. “My  _ sister  _ here had a nightmare. Pretty bad one, you can see how she’s shaking. I have a little time before my shift starts, so we’re taking a walk so she can calm down.”

The guard didn’t look impressed. “Nightmare or not, she’s a non-mage civilian, and there  _ is  _ a curfew. I’m going to have to report her—”

“Report her for what? Walking at night?”

“It’s just that it’s not safe—”

“I’m her  _ guardian.  _ It’s my job to protect her, and that’s what I’m doing. Now if you’ll excuse us, Tuuri has had a trying night and should go back to bed. Good night.”

He marched her and Lalli away before the guard could protest. They kept silent all the way back to the house. When they got inside, Onni said, “Lalli, you can go to sleep now.”

Lalli started for the bedroom, then paused and turned back. He patted Tuuri’s head, just once, before darting out of the room. The unexpected gesture brought tears to her eyes again.

Onni hung his cloak by the door and waved to a chair. “Sit.”

Tuuri sat. Onni sat across from her, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Tell me what happened.”

A dam burst inside her and the story poured out. The teasing, the fight, the brilliant revenge plan. Onni kept quiet until she got to the part about the lingonberries.

“Lingonberries?” Surprise replaced his stony expression. “Why would they try to make you eat those? And why wouldn’t you just eat one?”

Tuuri gasped and covered her mouth. “Onni! I don’t want to have a baby, I’m not ready!”

His eyebrows rose so far they disappeared into his hair. “What?”

So then she had to explain again, and Onni, covering his face with his hands, had to explain that lingonberries did  _ not  _ cause babies. By the time they cleared that up, it was nearly time for Onni to leave for his shift.

“Am I...in trouble?” Tuuri asked. 

Onni sighed. “You did do something wrong, Tuuri.”

“But I—” Tuuri stopped when she saw the look on his face. “Yes, I did. But I had to do  _ something!  _ She beat me up and ruined my shirt, and we can’t buy a new one so I’ll have to wear the old one and she’ll  _ know  _ she ruined it—”

“Is that a good enough reason for luring her past the wall? She could have been hurt.”

“But she—no. I guess that wasn’t a very good plan after all. It’s just...she said something about Mom and Dad, and I got so mad I wasn’t thinking.”

Onni went still. He took a deep breath and let it out again, a whoosh of expelled air. “Well. It’s late, and I have to go to work. I’ll figure out how to deal with you tomorrow.” He stood up, pulling Tuuri to her feet—and then caught her in a fierce hug. “Thank you for telling me,” he whispered, “I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you from that.”

_ It’s not your job to protect me from everything,  _ she thought. But she let him hug her and waved as he went out the door.

In the bedroom, a gleam of reflected light told her Lalli’s eyes were open. She sank onto the bed and rolled to the edge so he could hear her.

“I’m not mad at you, you know. If you hadn’t told Onni, I probably would have been caught out alone by one of those guards. So...thanks.” He didn’t say anything, but she didn’t expect him to. “Good night, Lalli. Sleep well.”

She might have imagined it, but it almost sounded like someone whispered,  _ “Night”  _ in reply. 

* * *

 

_ Year 80, Day 347 - Evening  _

Onni came late to dinner. Tuuri had saved him some food, and even managed to get some extra bread for Lalli to steal off her plate. Onni, for his part, showed up with a bucket full of lingonberries.

“What are  _ those  _ for?” Tuuri asked. She’d had enough of lingonberries for a lifetime.

Onni smiled. “I was thinking we could use them to fix your shirt. We can’t afford one of the stronger dyes, but these should at least make it all the same color.”

“Oh!”

“And I managed to get tonight off,” he continued, “So we can do it once we finish eating, if you want.”

She hugged him so enthusiastically she almost knocked the bucket over.

* * *

 

Onni hung the newly-dyed shirt from a makeshift clothesline in the kitchen. Tuuri and Lalli leaned over the still-bubbling pot of dye, dropping in pieces of paper and other small objects to see if the color would stick. There was probably more lingonberry juice on their hands than anything else, but that was all right. It was good to see them having fun.

And he still had one more surprise up his sleeve.

“You know, it looks like we have some extra berries that didn’t fit in the pot. What do you think we should do with them?”

Lalli shrugged. Tuuri grimaced like she wanted to throw them out the window, but all she said was, “I don’t know. Maybe give them to the big kitchen?”

Onni smiled and withdrew a small paper package from his pocket. “We  _ could  _ do that. Or maybe we could use them with this.”

* * *

 

_ Year 80, Day 348 - Morning  _

“And before we start today’s lesson, Tuuri has something she wants to say.”

Tuuri stood up and cleared her throat. Her new pink shirt gave her confidence, and so did the antique cookie tin on her desk, passed down through many generations of Hotakainens. “My brother traded for some sugar, so we made these scones for a treat! I wanted to share them with everyone, because you’re all  _ such  _ good friends.” She started passing the baked goods out, making sure to smile extra when she got to Kaisa’s desk. 

“What’s in these?” Kaisa asked, narrowing her eyes. She had crumbs on her chin.

Tuuri passed out the last scone and returned to her seat. “Lingonberries,” she said. Then, grinning, she took a huge bite and savored the sweet taste of revenge.

**Author's Note:**

> In _The Kalevala_ , the national epic of Finland, there is a portion near the end where a maiden eats a lingonberry (some translations say "cranberry" or "mountain-berry") and [becomes pregnant](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalevala#The_Marjatta_cycle). This story grew from the seed of that idea.


End file.
